Floating dry docks of Damen Shiprepair Curaçao moored to her dolphins

WILLEMSTAD - On Friday September 28, Damen Shiprepair Curaçao (DSCu) reached an important milestone. With the help of- and in good cooperation with the pilots and tugboats of KTK, the DSCu project team moored the first floating dock (C-Dock) to her dolphins along which she can move up and down in the future. These dolphins were previously in use for the floating dock of CDM, which was taken out of service in 2016.

The C-Dock required a lot of work after arrival in April this year, such as a lot of steel repair, blasting and painting in all ballast tanks. The work had already started in the Netherlands but was to be completed in Curaçao. The progress of this is now so far that the next step can be prepared: Putting it into operation. The dock will be electrically connected next week, after which the pumps and valves can be tested and calibrated. The intention is that the dock will actually be operational at the end of next week. It will be partly submerged, after which it can be prepared for the first commercial docking of a ship.

The C-Dock holds the smaller D-Dock, which will be undocked next week. After undocking, the D-dock will be moored to her dolphins. With the C- and D- dock, DSCu doubled the capacity and increased the flexibility of the shipyard. This allows the Damen shipyard to attract more ships for maintenance and repair, leading to a positive effect on the economy of Curaçao.

Damen Shiprepair Curaçao (DSCu) is proud of this special milestone that heralds the final phase of a long intensive period, during which they have not only improved the docks but also the infrastructure of the yard. They will continue to work and look forward to the first commercial dockings.